They did it before, Dia thought to herself with just a touch of incredulity, I shouldn't be so surprised to see them do it again.

Outside the newly built inn, Dia stood admiring the handiwork of her employees. She was surprised at the results of a few days' hard work when applied by the twelve industrious goblins. The Jade Dragon Inn stood in all its former glory, in the same spot on the busy Doman thoroughfare as it had occupied so many months ago. The young woman could almost pretend the Invasion had never happened, and the Jade Dragon had never been destroyed in the first place...

Well, not for long. She was Dia, and Dia was not given to a great deal of optimism and light-heartedness. It was hard for her to forget that even if the inn hadn't been crushed by the falling corpse of a bloated demon, this was the second time the Jade Dragon Inn was being rebuilt. The first time it was destroyed as the result of some incidents involving a now-deceased moogle dragoon that the dragonhalf mercenary-gone-innkeep normally preferred to forget...

"But that doesn't matter now!" she mumbled aloud to herself, smiling despite herself. The goblins, insisting that "Frau Dia" rest and let them do the hard work--or perhaps wanting to keep her out of their way--had worked even harder to rebuild the inn this time...using energy perhaps born out of joy at their reunion and the return of Dia's troupe back to Doma City. The result was a brand new Jade Dragon Inn, a perfect replica of its predecessor, right down to the plants between the booths and pinball machine in the corner.

And now, Dia was to place the finishing touch.

Walking up to the door, the dragonhalf reached forward and grabbed a thin plank of wood, suspended from a peg in the door by string...and gave it a flip. She then promptly disappeared inside the building, yelling out happily at her employees.

Max unconsciously begins to play, as any good atmosphere requires a bit of background music. The sound doesn't seem to spread from the mandolin so much as it acknowledges the fact that it has been in the room the entire time...just that noone has ever heard it. Ever. It can change and shift depending on the mood of the crowd and the people, and Max feels the melody slowly take root around them. It is a good night to be alive, and it feels even better to share this fact everyone else. For tonight, both their purposes and Max's are the same: enjoyment. At least, this would be his reasoning if he is paying attention.

Only the most observant and wise of man or woman can possibly notice the fact that several other instruments are accompanying his mandolin, with no visible source. After all, the music will always be there, trapped in its ethereal cage. It is simply a matter of finding it and releasing it for a time.

Finally, he notices that he is playing. He sighs. His fingers can sometimes think faster than his mind it seemed. Max is loathe to stop a song he has started, and does not dissuade the errant hand. In addition, he can't help but wonder what it would end up sounding like...well...that is for the audience to decide, whether they know it or not.

A relatively young-looking man, in a dark blue jacket and pants, peered into the building from the outside. As his grey eyes looked in, the man thought for a while. It had been here before, gone for some time... yet it was here again, as if nothing had happened.

Curtis ran a hand through his steel blue hair and, after readjusting the jacket, entered the building. After closing the door behind him, he moved to open the jacket as if it were too warm to wear it, revealing the green shirt he had below.

Up the street from the Inn, a familiar pair could be seen walking down the street together.

One was a mage of some kind, his dark green robes with yellow trimmings, obscuring most of his body. All that could be seen was the man's long, blood red hair, and a pair of blue hands with similar hair covering the backs. A large wide brimmed yellow hat adorned his head, the shadow only allowing his bright green eyes to be seen from beneath clearly. He seemed curious about something the other person walking with him was doing.

Said person was a man of average height, his short brown hair held back by a blue bandana. His blue platemail shone brightly in the n sun, a stark contrast to the black undergarments that could be seen between the pieces. His dark green eyes were currently fixated on what appeared to be a collection of papers.

"...Stephan, what could possibly be so fascinating about the contents of that?" he asked, trying to get a peak at it. Stephan quickly moved the papers slightly out of reading view, appearing slightly more nervous.

"Nothing big Mid, just uh... some job I'm thinking of taking is all." he said, doing his best to force a large, cheerful smile at the redhead by his side. Unfortunately for Stephan, all this did was make Midoku more curious. Nothing short of beating someone senseless would usually cause him to be this happy, unless the mage knew of the reason firsthand.

"...I see..." was all the mage said. Just then, his stomach decided to let out a low growl, the pair both looking at the mage's tummy.

"Guess its about time to get some grub, I'm starving my arse off too." Stephan said, "Too bad the Jade Dragon's just a pile of dirt now, we would've been right near the bloody place. The ONE time Doma having so many damned Inn's was a good thi... Mid?"

Midoku just started ahead, Stephan raising an eyebrow and turning to look up the road ahead of them. He blinked once, then twice, then two more times, not believing the site before him. There, amongst the ruin and rubble of the rest of the city, was the exact same Jade Dragon the pair remembered.

"...how the hell...?" Stephan wondered, dumbfounded by the site.

"Perhaps Miss Dia had some magical aid?" Midoku wondered, holding his chin as he thought out the possibilities to explain it.

"...whatever, I'm f#$king starving, let's just go in and get something to eat." Stephan said, heading off and leaving Midoku to ponder to himself, the swordman's stomach winning out any other thoughts for the moment.

"...or perhaps she enlisted the aid of some form of elementa... oh! Wait for me!" Midoku called, running after him once he had noticed reality again. Within a few moments, the pair were at the door and entering the newly rebuild Inn... of old.

Walking down the road, a whistling stranger slowly stops as he comes to the inn. He is an unimposing man, at about five feet, ten inches. He carries a mandolin at his side and is covered in a green cloak. Underneath it is a pair of green pants and shirt, with silver diamond-like stones embedded in the cloth. He is a performer of some sort, no doubt, as he slowly, absentmindedly strums a tune from his mandolin, that has notes that should not be possible to play on a mandolin. Strange, if you listen carefully enough, it almost sounds like an Acoustic guitar as it is called elsewhere.

None of these features matter as much as his eyes though, which tinkle with a bright silver. This is the feature that catches most people off balance, which is usually the intention. Muses, Full or half, usually enjoy seeing the full range of human emotion as it happens on the spot, and this one is no exception. He is Max Payneinear, and he is curious.

He feels dreams coming from this inn. Some bitter thoughts, some hope, and the miasma of soul and emotions that the place seemed to have gathered over the years. He is curious now. Its not so much the quantity of the feelings that dwell here, as their qualities. Minds and beings of great vitality, life, and deed have dwelled here, and this calls to him like a bee to honey. Inwardly he decides that his meeting with Rick can wait, if only a little while.

He enters the inn, and finds a table near the corner. Perhaps he'll move elsewhere to perform later? Perhaps not. Time will tell...

A dark look flashed briefly in Dia's eyes at Curtis's comment, but her smile broadened to a grin. "Thanks! That feels good," she said amiably, deftly filling a mug up with the desired beverage. "So you've been here before? Well, welcome back! It's good to see repeat business, no matter how long the wait is..."

Midoku fidgeted nervously, taken slightly aback by the young goblin woman's flirtation.

"Actually um... we would simply like..." he started to say. He was interruted, however, by a sudden, VERY firm grab around his waist by the taller armored man. Stephan looked down at the goblin waitress, a very slight glare in his green eyes.

"We'd like a table... for two... please." Stephan told her, his eyes narrowing further on the last word, as if to signify strongly to the woman:

Gihin's whole face went into an incredibly expressive pout, for just a moment...before she perked up immediately at some private thought. Her smile went even larger than before, and she repeated her courtsey.

"Right this way, gentlemen!" she chirped, eyes twinkling. She led the two over to a nearby table under a window. The sun poured through the frame, creating a bright cheery little scene for the two lovers to share their meal...

"Here is your menu...it will be juuuust a moment, my gut friend Hilda will wait on you..." With a cheery smirk and a wink, Gihin swirled around and bounced into the back room, yelling out in Goblin as the door swung behind her.

Out of the outer edges of the city, a young man briskly makes his way towards the locality of the Jade Dragon, half wondering if what he's heard is actually true. He wished with a good portion of his heart and soul that it was.

Emphasized by a slick grey coat, black boots done up with orange laces, black pants held with a leather belt adorned with an intricate silver buckle, and simple light blue shirt is the contrast of the various colors in his current attire that seem to mesh rather well. His blond hair is sort of half combed down in the front, and sticky-uppy in a few places near the back, with streaks of orange-copper threaded all throughout..

Slipping through and around the light traffic that often dots the streets of Doma, this knife-framed young man's coat whips a bit in the wind, revealing a simple, yet well crafted rapier sheathed at his side.

And so, he arrives, and a warm smile forms as he takes a moment to examine the Re-built Inn, before finally entering.

Sitting down at the bar with the drink he had been served, Curtis took the moment to pay for the drink, putting six gil - the price he'd always remembered dragonale to be - on the bar before continuing. "Thanks for the welcome. Anytime home winds up crazy, I'll be sure to come back here."

She trailed off as she became aware of background music. Funny, I don't recall hiring any musicians for today... she thought as she scanned the inn, looking for the source of the music. Her eyes came to rest, in short order, on Max, the only person in the inn with an instrument. She blinked in bemusement, but mentally shrugged and returned her attention to Curtis, waiting for his answer, if he decided to reply.

Still, a small voice in the back of her mind asked why that strange-looking gentleman was playing Rivan folk music, of all things!

Curtis returned to his normal voice. "Anyway, a couple of close.... associates of mine discovered a map recently, and in a couple of weeks they intend to take the danger of going to where it leads. Which means a lot of packing for them, and a lot of overtime work at the shop they own for myself. I'm just lucky Banlix took a shift for me."

Dia nodded agreement to Curtis, not really having any idea who Mikhais was but, hey, she was a barkeep, and it was her job to keep her patrons happy. And it generally annoyed people to have their assumptions challenged, she'd found out earlier on in her job...

"I see. Sounds like you deserve a relazing drink if you're putting in all that extra time," she said with a smile. "So, what kind of shop you working at? Maybe I know of it?"

A rather...fuzzy young man begins walking towards the inn, followed by a very twitchy young girl. The elder of the duo is somewhat tall, just an inch or two below six feet, and is covered from head to toe in black fur. His appearance seems to be a mixture of feline and rabbitlike features, including sharp cat eyes peering out from a pair of pince-nez glasses, and a pair of lop ears reaching down to his back.

Right before going into the inn, he takes a look at the girl to make sure that she hasn't wandered off anywhere. She's about ten years old, and decked out in black clothing more fitting for a mercenary than a child...in fact, she even has a pair of surprisingly realistic gun replicas in a holster at her belt. With her long black hair and dark shades, she'd look like a miniature replica of Karin Vaza to those who know the woman.

Seeing that she isn't involved in too much chaos, he adjusts his white mages robes before pointing to the building. "Tareen, this..." he says, while gesturing to the nigh-legendary tavern, "...is the Jade Dragon."

And with that, he begins to make his way in, along with his companion.

Curtis took a sip of the dragonale. After setting it down for the moment, he answered, "It's a potion shop. The Bladed Scale is what it's known as. I'm not the owner though... a dragonhalf named Banlix runs the place."

He glanced away for a moment. "I've just thought of something. What is it with dragonhalves and successful business around this city?"

"Eheh..." Dia grinned nervously and scratched the back of her head. "I can't claim credit for the Jade Dragon, really...I inherited it from the previous owner and since then I've only had to keep it running, you know? I'm sure this Banlix fellow has put more energy into his store...a potion shop you say? Can't say I've heard of it, sadly..."

"Okay," he thought, "This inn was destroyed." He reached down to touch the strings again, and stopped, "Twice."

He started to try and play again, and stopped once more. He had lost the groove, and muse or no, trying to play without would be like flogging a dead horse. He shook his head and ignored the looks of the other customers. It had been an incredibly ugly noise.

Meanwhile, a thin and tall goblin--tall for that particular race, that is--made her way over to Midoku and Stephan's table. A silly grin was plastered on her face, and there was...something about the way she smiled at the two that was a little...off? It wasn't unpleasant by any means, but it seemed a little strange nonetheless.

However, all she said to the two, in smooth Common, was: "Have you two decided what you would like to eat?"

Elsewhere, Kyle found his seat exactly where he left it, as if nothing had ever happened beyond routine maintenance...although the table was missing the "coffee" stain his normal mug of cocoa had left in times past. And by the seat was the shortest and palest of all the goblins, Gihin, chattering animatedly with a plump coworker in Goblin and with her back to Kyle.

And yet a third goblin awaited Max. A tall and hefty creature in overalls, the goblin smiled warmly (and a little vacantly) at Max as he cleaned an already spotless glass.

"Ya, you look like you vant a nice mug of dragonale! Is Yilliam right? Of course!" he greeted Max, nodding to himself as he poured Max a mug of just that. "You a bard? You should meet thees little critter by de name of Julux...he's a storyteller! Now iffin Yilliam only knew v'ere he ran off to..."

Curtis shrugged. "Eh, it's not exactly the biggest shop there is. And I find it intere-"

Curtis suddenly stopped for a moment, wincing. He then simply said, "Hold on a second."

He closed his eyes, looking like he was thinking deeply. What would seem apparent was that he'd been interrupted in his speaking by a telepathic message. Finally he reopened his eyes, then took another sip of dragonale.

Dia winced herself, but at the awful noise Max inadvertantly let out. "Ugh, what a sound," she said quietly, hoping to not be overheard by Max himself. Having missed the signs of Curtis's telepathic exchange due to being distracted, she turned her attention back to Curtis with a puzzled look on her face. "Hold on for what?"

Max nodded...contrary to what people thought whenever he told them whatever they were most worried about, he didn't do it by reading their minds, but by seeing what lay in their souls. Lacking a groove or not, he could not help but like the goblins of the Inn. The place felt like a frigging Phoenix...and they seemed...he couldn't place it.

So, there was another bard around here. Bard's were fun, their souls were fun to look at for starters...it was a Muse thing really. Generally afterwards, the Bard's wrote memorable ballads and such, but that was also a muse thing. There were a lot of muse things in general, but this one was the most important of all.

His silver eyes flashed, "Really? Another musician? Singer? I would like to meet him."

"Well," Curtis began, "...remember how I said Banlix was a dragonhalf, and he'd been working this shift? I just got telepathed by Araguchi, one of Banlix's close friends and one of the people who'd found the map, and he had to take over for Banlix's shift. Apparently Banlix had to hurry outside the city because of what Araguchi's nicknamed 'dragon suppression syndrome'."

Oh the joy of returning home after so long! More or less, that's how it can be described, as Kyle shuffled his way over to the beloved table where so many things have happened, and made to sit in the sturdy and comfortable chair.

He couldn't help but wonder, though, deep in the back of his mind, if this simple action would spring a chain of events that would throw his life into a whirlwind of pain and near-doom. After all, so many of his 'adventures' started here.

Another person entered the bar, which seemed to be quite a trend these days. When people look at Julux, the first thing they notice is that he is short, but then again as a gnome that's not out of the ordinary. The second thing thy notice is, however, is very much out of place. Strapped to his back, underneath his backpack, is a double headed axe bigger than he is. Other than that he is pretty much unremarkable, wearing plain travellers clothes and carrying a walking stick which appears to be more an accessory (and possibly a means of defense) than an aid. His bright eyes flash around the place, absorbing the image of each patron, marvelling in their uniqueness. He moved to the bar and walked behind it, so that all the patrons could see was a giant axehead walking along the bartop up to Yilliam.
"Ahem, Yilliam wasn't it?"

Meanwhile, Idran, walking about in the course of his current line of research, spots the building out of the corner of his eye.

IM: ...Huh. When'd this happen?

He decides to enter the building and see if his suspicions are correct, and this is in fact the same inn he had spent so much time in before the events of the war. He looks around, spotting Kyle at a table, and heads over to him.

"Hey, Kyle. You don't mind if I sit here, do you? Seems fairly crowded right now."

"Get yer arses in there, ya bleedin' wankers!" yelled a familiar voice, followed by the murmurings of several other familiar voices.

Mere moments later, a little green person entered the inn. Then another. And another. Before long, the building contained several little green men -- the goblins that Dia had left at the Ivory Horn at the very start of the invasion.

"Osbourne!" Dia greeted with genuine cheer. "Gunther, Hunther, Ren, Gwilliam! I can't tell you how good it is to see you all again!

"Thanks for taking care of the goblins while I was in Nekonia, Osbourne...here, have a seat, let me get you something to drink and eat. It's the least I can do after, ah...coming back and becoming competition again," she said with a nervous smile.

"I'll admit," she continued conversationally, "I was a little angry when I heard what happened to the Jade Dragon..." Knowing Dia, that was probably an understatement. "...But it doesn't seem to matter much now!" she finished, indicating the newly built building around her with a smug smile.